The Great War: Peace Through War
by BloodLordShade
Summary: The Batarians have started something they can not stop. They will pay for their crimes against Humanity.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone. This is the long-awaited moment. The ass-kicking the Batarians deserve in my opinion. Now then I am looking for a Beta-Reader but I don't know how to get one so help please. Anyway on with the story of a lifetime, okay maybe not a lifetime but still. Also my Shepard will be the default with a brown buzz cut.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own either mass Effect or Command and Conquer.**

* * *

**Valkyrie transport **

**Above Torfan**

A team of marines were waiting for the command to head down to the planet's surface. Young Major Alexander "Axel" Belmont was standing beside the cockpit wondering about the fight that would be happening planet side. He was an American with French and German heritage. He grew up in a Yellow Zone in the lower North American area. He joined the military when he was old enough after Zone Troopers came to his town to help give relief operations to the local area.

He was carrying modified Citadel weapons due to their lighter weight and more accurate fire. He had a M-96 Mattock, M-15 Vindicator, and a N7 Valkyrie. The HDI got them modified to fire slugs instead of those sand grains they called bullets so troops had non-rail gun weapons to fire when they needed a better firing rate. The system wasn't perfect, he had to insert a new thermal clip every so often but it got the job done better. The mods included thermal scopes and a Omni-blade attachment which was useful. Due to the bigger rounds a magazine upgrade and higher velocity barrel were a must.

One of the other marines stepped beside him. "You okay marine?"

Axel nodded, "I am fine, sir. This is just Elysium was my first true combat mission. I only fought pirates and the occasional slaver group before this."

The other nodded, "Yeah, I was nervous too on my first combat drop, don't worry stay calm and stick close to your team and you will be fine. John Shepard," he said holding out a hand which Axel shook. "Alexander Belmont, most call me Axel though."

Axel sat down beside Shepard and thought about how this all started.

* * *

**Three months ago**

**Elysium**

Marcus Goldman was sitting the night shift on the first of two ODPs (Orbital Defense Platform) above Elysium having a cup of coffee to stave off sleep. Commander Steelman was sitting in a raised chair behind waiting until he could go to bed too when the other ODP, the_ Iroquois_, blew up and shattered.

"What the Hell was that!" Steelman shouted. "Mass Accelerator Cannon fire sir, enemy ships approaching dozens of them."

"Raise the kinetic barriers, activate the ion shields. I want firing solutions NOW!"

Steelman activated the intercom. "All hands, we are in crisis mode people. Dozens of enemy ships are attacking Elysium. The _Iroquois _has been destroyed, I want all systems set to automatic and all non-essential staff to abandon the ODP. I have sent a warning to the nearest fleet, they should arrive in four hours and I have alerted the ground forces on Elysium. Good luck and Godspeed."

Looking at the sensor scans Steelman and Goldman watched as nearly a hundred ships of various makes and states of repair charge towards them. "I want you to get firing solutions on anything that is capable of carrying troops while harassing the rest. Fire the Drone Pods as well."

Marcus pulled a firing solution for a bulked up Cruiser of Turian make and fired a single pod to it. The pod used a single engine to speed toward its target.

* * *

**Pirate vessel _Hydra_**

"This will be the biggest payday ever, boys! I can't wait to get down there and shows those damn Humans why they should be cowering in fear of the Batarian Hegemony." The Batarian in command of the ship was relaxing believing that this would be easy as there was only one orbital station left and the fleet was gone.

**THUNK!**

The crew looked around wondering what that was. Suddenly alarms blared and one of the techs yelled to the commander, "Sir, we have decompression on decks five and six and no-one is responding."

The captain growled, "Then bring the section on-screen you idiot!"

The tech nodded and pulled up the security footage and what they saw was ... strange. There were ten weird two and a half tall mechs pulling themselves out of a large pod that had bored through the hull. The worst part showed why the crew in that area didn't respond. The entire room was sprayed with blood and small body parts laying everywhere.

"Oh God!" One of the crew gags and turns away from the carnage in the video. They watch as the mechs charge the walls. The captain laughs, "Look at this, these pathetic Humans can't even program mechs properly." But they see that he was wrong as the drones start to chop and saw their way through the walls in different directions.

"Shit! Get fire teams down there and put those things down now!"

"Sir, similar pods have hit six other ships in the fleet. The remaining station has raised shields and is starting to fire upon the fleet. Oohhh my God." The station is surrounded by swirling clouds and they could see what appeared to be lighting striking through the shadowy clouds as lasers fired through carving into the fleet as rail gun rounds affected kinetic barriers or just tore right through them and the ships they were protecting.

Marcus was maintaining the power and coolant levels as the temporary one-sided fight continued. Luckily only a few of the pirate ships had long enough range guns to attack them. "Marcus, transfer the power and coolant controls to me and get off this station."

Marcus turned to his commanding officer in shock, "Sir?"

"Get out of here you have a little girl to take care of. I intend to go down with the station. The station isn't going to last long and I can control the weapons until the shields fail."

Marcus just numbly nodded, "It was an honor Steelman."

Steelman laughed softly, "Just call me Jack Marcus and Godspeed."

* * *

**Elysium**

Fire teams were heading to check points as civilians headed to bunkers under the city. They had deployed the new MCS (Mobile Cover System) across the city as Slingshots patrolled waiting for enemy troopships to descend into their firing range. The MCS was a new defense idea put into place, the idea was gotten from an old game called _Gears of War 2_. The MCS was a system of waist-high centipede mechs that were about 20 feet long and built to stand heavy punishment even explosives. Zone troopers and marines with local police and militia troops. The police officers had armor based off of old world war 2 Peacekeeper forces (Red Alert 3) with a riot shield that had a kinetic barrier installed to increase their defensive power.

The militia had a variety of weapons but most had a standard level armor but each was personalized by squad level. They had heavy Infantry with LMGs and rockets down to riflemen with assault rifles. Rigs were deploying at four-ways and the edges of the cities. The new Rigs had a built-in bunker were troops could bunker for protection. Wolverines marched around keeping an eye as sniper teams deployed atop skyscrapers and tall buildings.

Specter and Juggernaut artillery set-up in defended positions with Sonic Emitters and Guardian turrets protected them with a few Watchtowers keeping an eye for enemy infantry.

* * *

**Space above Elysium**

Jack was firing rounds and lasers as fast as the cannons could cycle while the station was being pounded by enemy fire and shaking from the explosions blazing into existence. Jack could die proud that his station alone took eighteen enemy vessels and could still fight. Six more vessels were destroyed by Terror Drone Pods. He grinned in savage triumph at that even will around one hundred and twenty ships they were still fighting as the stations space drones and the ion storm held off the fighters.

Unfortunately the ships holding troops hid behind more combative vessels after losing eight of twenty troop ships. He was sure that the rest of the fleet carried troops but it was better to take out most of the ground troops. An explosion rocked the room as shrapnel slammed into his command chair and everything went black.

Outside the fleet, after noticing that the station stopped firing ready to land. Elanos Haliat stood at a table showing the status of the pirate and slaver fleet which took more of a beating then he imagined it would from the defenses. The Turian watched as drop ships and the troop ships headed down through the atmosphere towards the planet.

He was hoping to gain control of the Terminus pirate fleets with this but it wasn't looking good. As he watched the ships head down Jack was lying down bleeding heavily from his wounds he saw four transports and a couple drop ships cross the last functioning rail gun's line of fire. Taking it as a sign Jack pulled himself up and held his hand above the fire button and said quietly, "See you in hell, Mother Fuckers!" and sent a round straight through the four transports and twelve small drop ships before hitting a pirate frigate.

The retaliation fire destroyed the station before Jack could even realize he was dead. On the surface the defense forces saw the station die but not before it took out a large chunk of the landing forces, it would be a hard fight but they would persevere and win.

* * *

**Outskirts of Elysium**

Waiting for the pirates two brand new Decimator walkers stood ready as last-minute checks were run to make sure they would be functioning as this was their first real live fire mission. The Decimator walker stood twenty meters high on four double jointed legs with a heavily built body with two large laser cannons held above the back. The two lasers would fire two beams and then sweep them across the ground or across the sky to hit aircraft. The only flaw was the fact it had no secondary weapons and small fast craft could evade the cannons long enough to get under it.

Though this was a problem it was mitigated by the quick strike bikes hovering beneath them protectively. The dozen or so bikes were just slim frames that had two tiberium core engines and a anti-grav device connected to the bottom that allowed it to effortlessly fly above the ground at high speeds. Armed with a light Tiberium shard cannon it was useful for quick recon or to defend the large heavy walkers and mechs from infantry or scout craft. The bikes could send a burst of energy to the anti-grav to "leap" over obstacles without having to slow down or turn. Due to the small fragile frame and high-speed most consider them to be death traps but when in the hands of a master they are lethal weapons capable of quick strikes than withdrawing before anyone can fight back.

As the Decimators and Slingshots fire upon the ships descending upon them. Most of the ships survived the landing and ready IFVs and Makos and other craft along with hordes of pirates and slavers.

Both sides met with a clash of missile and rifle fire, both trying to kill the other side. The first Decimator charged up it's beam cannons and fired into the enemy lines hitting a Mako and then the two beams sweeping away from each other for four feet blowing up the vehicles and incinerating the infantry around them.

Sargent Jared Dorreno pulled the trigger on his Mattock, the new staple weapon of city garrisons, shooting a Turian in the chest shattering his kinetic barriers so his partner Mike Wazowski could take the kill shot. He saw to his left a trooper firing a LMG at a IFV and the troopers around it.

Orcas and Hammerheads flew over head while Firehawks dealt with dogfights against the Pirate fighters. The battle was going well until a team of Krogan Warlords came charging towards a group of militia who had to scatter or get crushed under their feet. The pirates rushed into the gap behind them only to run face first into fire from the Rig that had parked a few meters away at the beginning of the street leading into the city.

In other areas of the city things were going worse than that as pirate groups managed to get into the city and take out a couple of Slingshots but were forced into cover by sniper fire and artillery bombardment.

Gareck Halinos was pissed off, this was supposed to be an easy raid on a Human planet to make them pay for taking planets that belonged to the Hegemony. He hated the fact the Council did nothing to stop these _Filthy _pests from taking Batarian territory. He stood and fired a burst into a militia taking him down but not out of the fight as he was pulled behind a destroyed car by a Zone trooper who was leading this pack of Human dogs.

Gareck didn't realize but his time in this universe was coming to end. "Target sighted, 30 degrees north two degrees west in sector Bravo deep. 800 yards -22 degree incline, wind going 2 mph west."

"Noted, humidity, temperature, and range accounted for target sighted and preparing to fire." **BOOM! **A single 50 caliber round flew 800 yards and impacted the targets left lower eye and tore out the back of his skull spraying a couple of others with his blood. "Target down. Delta-team out."

* * *

**Civilian bunker 5**

The militia stood and fought for an hour against the pirates but eventually they fell to the overwhelming numbers against them but managed to inflict forty percent causalities of the men they fought.

The Slavers grinned at finally having something of value after three hours of trying to raid this damn city. After cutting their way inside their grins fell at the measly thirty maybe forty people there it was full of construction workers and heavy workers, no women or children to speak of.

"Damn it! They must have sent the women to the interior bunkers. Still round them up and get them on a transport to our ship and get ready to get out of here the Humans won't be long."

After forcing the Humans into a transport the ship headed to one of the smaller corvettes where the crew decided to get out of there before they could get caught by the Human reinforcements.

**Space**

They had just started under way when four Human Cruisers jumped into the system by the other Relay with ten destroyers. They started to fire upon the pirate fleet which had been caught with its pants down since most of the ships had been focused on the fight planet side and were decimated by the opening salvo and couldn't get their heavier cannons into play without having to turn.

Once the heavier cannons came into play the fighting become much more even and fiercer then either side could have wanted. Several ships died within the first five minutes of fighting but the HDI ship's better condition and more rested crew gave them an advantage from the damaged pirate ships and their tired crew.

On the ground the fighting was maybe even fiercer then the one above them fighting. Guns blazed and explosives blew as the battle raged across the city streets. A militant had gotten the idea of putting a Shredder Turret into the bed of a armored pick-up truck and using it as a mobile turret like old MG trucks from Africa in the 2000s. gunships and fighters fought in aerial dogfights as they tried to bring each other down. The whole city was like one big symphony of gunfire and explosions being sung.

Jared put a round through a Batarian's eye and slammed his K-bar knife into a Turian's throat as the fighting continued. "Command, We need support ASAP! Get us some firepower here pronto." Two Wolverines marched out as their chain-guns blazed ripping through the enemy while gun fire pinged off their armor giving the troops a breather to reload and resupply. "Alright Troopers, Command wants us to capture one of the landed ships so Intel can find the bastards who came up with this attack so we can kick down their door. Well when that happens the Devil Dogs will be there to show them the errors of their ways, right boys?"

**HURRAH! **The scattered Zone Troopers and Marines yelled as they started a push towards the enemy. The pirates refused to give up without a fight though as a team of Batarians and a couple of Krogan hold back the Human forces until two Hammerheads flew in and air dropped Heavy Riflemen on the ground. Four of them held a long rifle while the others carried LMGs.

**BOOM! **Two of the rifles fired and the first hit a Batarian and its upper half simply ceased to exist as the round just tore him in half. The second hit a charging Krogan and did some real damage, not enough to kill or even stop it but enough to help put him down. After the soldiers secured the area Jared turned to the sergeant in charge of the Heavy riflemen.

"What kind of rifles are those, and how do we get some?"

"They are double rifles, elephant guns, and these are just a test run on them. Command decided if these can blow a hole in an elephant's ass then they can blow a hole in Krogan." A laugh ensues at that.

"Come on Marines! We got aliens to kill." The group gets back in the fight.

Jared snapped a grenade into a group of cars that a trio of Turian mercs were hiding behind. The explosion ripped one apart and knocked the others back as Zone troopers used their jump pack to drop in amoung them and quickly cut open their throats and let the blood fly.

The Batarians' IFVs held a zone between two buildings managing to hold the assault at bay until a Juggernaut managed to destroy one and flip another giving the marines a chance to bring up RPGs. Two rounds lashed out and hit the third taking it out of the fight for good. The ship could be seen as Hammerheads and Venoms could be seen harassing and keeping the ship from getting away.

After ten minutes of hellish firefights and constant mortars and artillery strikes as Pitbulls fired rockets and mortars while Titans and Juggernauts marched forward firing their heavy cannons at the faltering enemy line.

Garek couldn't believe it, after all the time and money spent they still couldn't beat these swine! The Human troopers were marching forward relentlessly unwilling to let them escape with their lives. He wouldn't hide from these morons anymore. Grabbing a second assault rifle and stood yelling, "**I AM GOING TO KI..." **unfortunately for him a cannon round from a Titan decided to take up residence in his chest cavity causing it to burst in a way reminiscent of a Chest Buster from Aliens.

Once the Marines had gained a foothold in the ship CQC specialists took the lead on the operation. The fight became what the Russians called a _Rattenkrieg, _or Rat War, the entire ship had to be cleared room by room. Jared and his team slowly cleared the sector of the ship they were given which included the cargo hold. Along the way in the firefights outside of the ship they had picked up a marine by the name of Alexander Belmont, he was alright.

Once they hit the door to the Hold Jared grabbed two flash bangs and slowly pushed the door open a crack. They could hear Batarians arguing over something. Jared looked at his team to make sure they were ready and flung the grenades in and grabbed his rifle, after the explosion of light and sound the team threw open the door and quickly executed the Batarians before they even realized what had happened.

That was when Jared looked around and almost threw up in horror and disgust. There were cages, not cargo containers like they thought, full of aliens. Asari, Turians, Salarians, and even a couple of Krogan and Quarians. They were ill and some cages had their excrement across the cage's floor. It was a horror the team wished they never had to have seen.

"Command, are you seeing this?" Jared asked as his team tried to stay calm and check for more Batarians. "Roger, Sargent. Have your team get these people out of there, Medical supplies and staff are on their way with food and basic supplies. I am sending a translation matrix to you now." Jared could hear the disgust in the Intel Officer's voice as he relayed commands.

"Alright team, start getting these cage doors open and these people out of here. Try and keep them calm we don't need a riot."

Jared then spoke out loud to the prisoners. "Attention everyone, I am Jared Dorreno of the HDI. My team and I will be getting you out of here but I need you to stay calm and follow our orders. Food and medical aide will be waiting for you outside but there are still Batarians out there so we need to be able to keep quiet and not get into a firefight."

The team quickly used the bolt cutters in their standard issue gear to cut the locks of the cage doors and started helping people out of their cells. Many could barely walk while some didn't even seem aware of their surroundings.

Axel found a young Asari, she appeared to be maybe ten years old, trapped in a razor cage that barely gave her any room to move without being torn to shreds from the razor wire. He quickly came over and spoke softly and gently to her, "Hi, my name is Alexander but you can call me Axel. I am going to get you out of there, its going to be okay I promise." The poor girl couldn't even stand as her legs had atrophied due to them not being used in so long. Axel quickly pulled her into a bridal carry and headed out with her clinging to his neck crying her eyes out.

"What's your name little one?" She looked at him with teary eyes and whispered, "Selrina." He smiled, "That's a beautiful name." She smiled a little and hugged him tighter. She refused to let him go even when paramedics tried to pull her away to check her injuries.

* * *

**Arturus Station**

**The day after the Skyllian Blitz **

David Grendson was pissed. Head Security Administrator of the HDI for only a few months and this happens! The video from the team who had found the slaves and prisoners had leaked to the press and the public was in an uproar. Almost everyone was crying out for Batarian blood, even the pacifists which was shocking. The worst part was that a group of civilians had been kidnapped and taken from Elysium but there was nothing they could do until they found the missing colonists.

"Good day Administrator. The Intelligence Department has managed to crack the computers aboard the captured slaver ship. The colonists are being held on Torfan. We still haven't figured out who supported this attack but Torfan will hold the answers we seek."

David turned to face the speaker. "Hello Illusive Man. Alright this needs to be done quick before the public gets even rowdier from this. Send in the Black Hand and Purifiers. Also Illusive Man? Send in the Burning Vengeance. We will burn them to the ground in purifying flame."

* * *

**Codex**

CC-6 Pitbull: The GDI use this jeep vehicle as a patrol car and light attack craft. It has a dual missile launcher to engage ground and air targets, it has a 80mm mortar for extra damage against ground forces. Capable of deceting stealthed units the Pitbull is the staple of HDI scouting and reconnaissance efforts.

Terror Drones pods: The ship based weapons were by using terror drones as anti-ship weapons. Holding ten Terror Drones they would use heavy magnets to attach to the sides of a ship and burrow a hole in and unleash their cargo of Drones which would immediately run rampant and cut their way through the ship and tear it apart from the inside.

Hammerhead: With the creation of the Thunderhawk gunship the Hammerhead was slated for police work and city defense due to it's slower speed but more stable flight. The Hammerhead has two Vulcan cannons and an octagonal deflective armor. It's twin intermeshed rotor give it immense lift and great stability.

Slingshots: These dedicated anti-air craft have four 30mm anti-air guns and a hexagonal composite armor allowing it to survive most light weapons. It has a HoverTech Chassis giving it a greater acceleration with great stability.

SA-2 Orca: a mix of the third and fourth tiberium war era Orcas this helicopter is more capable as a light attack craft for city defense due to its tighter turn radius compared to the Thunderhawk gunship. Armed twin 50mm machineguns and two light comet rocket launchers this gunship is capable of being a asset to city defenses as it weaves through buildings at a high or low altitude.

Firehawk: This Fighter-Bomber carries two Incendiary bombs or four air-to-air missiles. This aircraft has become Humanities premier dual-role aircraft in the HDI armory. Capable of 8-1 thrust, it puts out 8 times it's weight in thrust.

Black Hand: The Black Hand has become the one of the Elite combat companies of the HDI armies. wearing full power armor and flame-proof cloaks and armed with flamethrowers these troopers are capable of burning the enemy to the ground with their purifying flame while not threatening their own safety. They use Purifiers as combat walkers and flame tanks mostly due to their slight pyromaniac tendencies.

* * *

**Well the action is heating up. Haha! get it? Black Hand are getting into the story? Ah oh well, no one ever thinks I am funny. Anyway Sorry for the wait. Please Read and Review. Let the Great War commence.**


	2. Razing Torfan

**I am surprised with how fast people favorite and followed this story and it's only the first chapter. Well the next chapter is here but a few things to say first. HKblarg Et caetra I will try to update quickly to save the rest of your leg from the Visceroids.**

**Onsholo: How could you be so mean to my Peacekeepers. Besides they are better police officers. Conscripts are good but not police officers.**

**Michae1ange1o: They aren't actually powder weapons. The Technology Gathering and Integration basically added a rail gun firing mechanism allowing the heavy slugs to be accelerated. Also I never really used shotguns. I was more a SMG, sniper rifle, and heavy pistol guy.**

**J.E.P 1996: Okay thank you for clearing it up. I thought about call of duty when that Russian guy mention it. Also the Firehawk can only hold two bombs or four missiles. I didn't want to mess with that.**

**Kane: Thank you for telling me about Tiberium Essence. It helped.**

**subsider34: I have to admit that I did shove things down people's throats. Thanks for mentioning it without be rude about it.**

**I'veGotNoIdea: Nukes are against Citadel Law and even though the HDI isn't apart of the Citadel Races they can't just do something like that. They are strong but the Citadel Races have the numbers and their tech can compete against the HDI.**

** Also Kinetic rounds can be accelerated to near relativistic speeds as long as you can handle the immense recoil which a large ship can, especially since a round the size of a paint chip can do as much kinetic damage as a nuclear warhead. So they could just fire right outside their scan range and fire at them as a round is tiny so a computer, even if it could get a scan on it, would automatically think it to be space debris.**

* * *

**Black Hand Flagship _Purifying Flame_**

Kyar'Tegran nar Neema walked down the hallways with Chief Engineer Gregory Davowski. Kyar stood at an even 5'6" with a green tinted black enviro suit. He was showing Kyar the areas of the ship so he wouldn't get lost. Kyar was on his Pilgrimage from the Migrant Fleet. Due to the better relations with the HDI most Quarian pilgrims went to Human planets because of their more relaxed stipulations on jobs they could have and the technologies they could buy for the Fleet. Kyar had signed on as an engineer for the _Purifying Flame. _He was curious about these Black Hand. Not much had been available on the Codex entry he found. To his surprise they seemed to be more religious than fighters. A couple of them even introduced themselves as Brother.

The ship and it's technology was amazing, the entire thing had nearly blown his mind at the impressive design. The ship even had a red crystalline data layer that could be seen on the inside under thick armor-glass. The engines were a deuterium-fusion reactor allowing more use of FTL because it didn't create heat like a Ezzo core did. Kyar was glad his contract for two years allowed him to choose a technology to bring back to the Fleet, true there were limits to what he could take back mainly weapons technology and Tiberium but there were many other useful items.

They passed a little chapel the Brotherhood created from a small extra storage room. He could see some of them praying while most were hurrying about in a hurry. "All hands, to stations and prepare to get under way. I repeat all hands, to stations and prepare to get underway."

Gregory turned to him, "Come on I will show you your room later, we need to get to the engines." The elevator was faster than most in Citadel Space, Kyar thought. They reached the engine room quickly and Kyar saw the most amazing engine he had ever seen. There was a raised rectangular pyramid that stretched eight meters, along that stretch were four reactors on each side. These shell-like reactors connected by tubes to the upper surface of the room. In these tubes Kyar could see the raw electrical power flowing through them. It was an interesting sight.

"The power output could easily power an entire colony planet for a year on ten minutes of output. It unfortunately needs constant maintenance to keep up full power." Gregory nodded to an real computer station that was near them. "That will be your station. Get ready the ship will be underway soon. Your job will be to regulate the power through the various systems in and out of combat and general maintenance of the engine.

The _Purifying Flame _was headed to the relay with the _Rising Fire _and the _Falling Ashes, _all three were Black Hand Cruisers with laser cannons replacing the cannons and blue Tiberium core missile launchers replacing the sonic point defense and the Sonic torpedo launcher. These ships were a light blue with crimson flame detailing that gave them a fiery appearance. They started to head for Torfan, it would take about ten hours to reach Torfan.

* * *

**Head Security Office **

**Mars**

David was trying to keep the peace as calls kept coming in from the public demanding action for the attack on Elysium. While the Black Hand were on their way to Torfan to retrieve the kidnapped colonists. Ships were being built to bulk up patrols and planetary defenses as more colonies built ODPs.

He had Anita Goyle go to the Citadel with Donnel Udina to find out if the Council is going to do anything about these pirates of theirs. _Yeah right, when Hell freezes over. Bastards, _he thought as he pulled more paperwork towards him. Looking at he froze reading the title, _Tiberium Life forms Discovered._ He started to read this then called his assistant. "Gladys, call professor Goodman and send him to me as soon as he gets here."

"Yes, Sir." After an hour of mind killing paperwork the door opened and professor Goodman came in with a folder. "You wanted to see me sir?"

"Yes, I was reading your report on Tiberium life forms and had a couple of questions. I know Tiberium has always changed animals and plants but I don't understand your paper. How have you discovered Tiberium life forms?"

"Come with me to my lab and I will show you what I mean. It is quite fascinating to be sure."

Once in the lab Goodman, who insisted on being called Steve, yelled for someone to pull out the specimens from the last group. Lying on the first table was the body of a Ravager, the strange thing was Tiberium was starting to grow aross it's body mainly at the top were it holds it's Tiberium shards. Tiny cracks were scattered across its body with Tiberium poking out of it.

Going to the next tables David could see the various levels of Tiberium growth. "Even with all this Tiberium growing across them they still functioned perfectly. It also shows that even their metal armor isn't immune to Tiberium, it just takes years for it to be able to break through the metal. That is probably another reason the Tiberium Control Network failed in the long run."

The last table held the biggest shock. It was a Ravager, only made purely out of Tiberium. "Steve, just what am I looking at here? It looks like someone carved a Tiberium statue of a Ravager."

"It is a Tiberium Ravager, only this one was capable of moving. Deep inside the crystal are trace amounts of the Scrin metal. The Tiberium is covering the Ravagers and we believe the crystal will eventually create them out of pure Tiberium in a matter of years."

David looks at him in horror. "So we would be dealing with Tiberium monsters then? Fuck! Is there anyway to stop this?"

"Well, I don't think we have to worry immediately. Like evolution it will take years for it to "learn" how to do that but I doubt they will eat meat, even if they can eat it would probably be Tiberium. I think it was supposed to happen after a planet is fully covered in Tiberium so there would probably not have been meat anyway."

David relaxed and nodded. "Professor, keep studying this and send me regular reports on your findings. I would stay but I have other problems to take care of. The idiots in Citadel Space among them." The last part was whispered but Steve heard him.

"Poor man, having to deal with another governments stupidity. Melissa, get me the paperwork for us to get a sonic amplifier. I want to test these bodies against sonics."

* * *

**Torfan**

The fiery fleet appeared near Torfan and was taking an hour to prepare ground forces and to assault the eight ships in orbit. They wouldn't be a problem since three were converted cargo ships with a few guns slapped on making them little more than bullet shields for the real threats. The three destroyers and two cruisers. The three Black Hand ships will be able to take care of them but the bullet shields were the problem, the cargo ships were designed to stay together easier under stress allowing them to take better damage.

"_Rising Fire _I want you to jump to these coördinates and fire on the bullet shields while the _Falling Ashes _will jump to the other side once the they get between you and the real threats and we will then drive straight down their throats." Admiral Gideon Raveshaw the second commanded. He was a descendant of the original Black Hand leader under Kane, standing at 4'10" he was a little short but still commanded respect from his troops.

The _Rising Fire _used a short FTL burst to the left of the defense formation and fired it's Obelisk turrets to carve a long groove into the closest cargo ship and hammered it with Tiberium core missiles to shock them into action and fired its only rail gun that fired a magnesium thermite mix round into one of the destroyers causing it to burn. The destroyer was basically out of the fight for the moment allowing the _Falling Ashes _to strike the far side forcing one bullet shield to head back over allowing them to send a magnesium thermite round into a cruiser damaging it but it was still in the fight allowing it to send a barrage of rounds into the _Falling Ashes'_ ion shield which took a hit but started to recharge, that was the trade off with the ion shields they were a little weaker but recharged easier then kinetic barriers.

"Alright men, let's shove our fire straight down their throats." Utilizing a FTL jump to point blank range the _Purifying Flame _opened ports that released a concentrated cloud of magnesium dust onto the last two destroyers and the middle cargo ship. Then a spark of electricity and the three ships had a burning wall of fire burning despite the vacuum of space.

"Start the assault. I want boots on the ground in five minutes or I will have every man who delays me go through initiation again and prepare an Firestorm Bomb." Everyone stiffens at doing initiation again, it was a brutal way of making sure Black Hand was the best.

Down on the surface Batarians were getting defenses ready at the bunkers on the surface. The HDI were in orbit and the Batarians weren't going down without a fight since they had the backing of the Hegemony and everyone in the universe that the Council wouldn't do jack to help a few little lost souls since they haven't done anything in centuries. "Look up aircraft inbound!" Someone yelled out. They could see the giant transports of the Humans but also a small craft in front of them. After the transports landed near the bunker the first ship leveled and dropped a small object before heading back up. After a few seconds the small object released some fluid and kept falling. After the fluid hit the ground the object hit and the world disappeared in a storm of hellfire.

"Alright team the Vertigo has dropped the Fuel Air Bomb and is headed back now it's our time to show these heretics our ways of war. Show no mercy, you all saw the videos of the poor souls they enslaved and tortured, they deserve nothing but purifying fire. We pull the blackened hearts of our enemies and so our hands turned black."

On the ground Hegemony soldier Jaen had been on the outskirts of the blast and barely managed to survive because of the shockwave. Lying on the ground in pain he could see the fiery hell of the blast sight, the only lucky thing was he knew nothing could survive that fire so they had a moment to recover. That was until a slaver next to him yelled out, "Look in the fire!" Large black shapes marched through the fires towards them as if they weren't standing practically in a firestorm from hell.

Then gunfire started to hit the pirates and slavers as the black soldiers just rushed towards them. Once they got close the figures fired blue flames at them and easily started to push them back as they tried to hold the bunker entrance so the engineers could shut and lock it down. They managed to do and relaxed inside wondering what the hell they would do now. They could hear a hissing noise and could see the blast door start to glow red. "Their melting the door!" Someone said hysterically.

Outside the squad's sergeant was using his plasma caster to burn through the metal door. Usually the plasma caster was used for enemy vehicles but it did make an impromptu plasma torch. "How long until we breach the door?"

"Five minutes, Sir." The rest of the squad was making sure the Batarians were truly dead. "Found a live one here sir!"

They stood around the injured trooper and one noticed the insignia on his armor. "That's a Hegemony insignia!"

"Drag him back to the transports, Intel can have him. We have other priorities to deal with."

The door close to breaking so they could charge through it to surprise the enemy on the other side. Breaking through the Black Hand immediately started to burn their way through the bunker looking for the prisoners and slaves hoping to find the colonists stolen from Elysium.

They came across some slave but no humans just some asari and turians. "Get some Black Disciples down here to help them back up to the surface. Mark and Johnson, stay here until they get here."

They kept fighting their way through while the Batarians screamed from the fires burning them alive as they fought against the "Black Demons" who used fire as their way of war.

On the surface things were a little harder for the Black Hand as the Batarians kept their distance from them forcing them switch to assault rifles and heavy incinerators. The assault rifles used magnesium infused metal to burn their targets while heavy incinerators fired a glob of napalm that stuck to their targets. Above them stood the Purifiers with their flamethrowers and inferno cannons. They took quickly with the burning of entire floors with the purifiers fire cleansing them.

A few Batarians futilely tried to use incinerate to light them ablaze to no effect. The Black Hand had obtained minimal casualties in the fight. Then a transport landed and released a modified Redeemer. Standing forty meters tall it carried two incinerator cannons and two flamethrowers instead of infantry hard-points and an obelisk laser. It's cannon fired and caved in a building upon a couple of batarian defenders who managed to hold out for a few minutes.

* * *

Hade was running through the remains of his base firing quick shots to keep the beasts in his way from stopping him long enough to get past. He was running for a hidden air pad with a small freighter with a small FTL core. If he could just get away he could easily out maneuver the ships in orbit long enough to hit the relay.

He could see a squad of Batarian Soldiers putting up a fight against the invading Humans. Hade tossed a frag grenade near the Humans and sprinted to the squad next to the hangar door. The squad nodded to Hade and one spoke yelling over the din of rifle fire and the roar of fire. "Sir, you need to get out of here. Orders from the Hegemony state that you have information that cannot be gained by the Humans. We will hold this door so you can escape."

Hade nodded, "Thank you for your men's sacrifice, soldier." Before Hade could move a shimmer in the air fired a small burst of bullets into the squad as three others fired as well. The shimmers rippled and revealed. The four men stood in slim black bodysuits with light metal strips put in strategic areas of the body. They wore plexi-glass visor helmets with rebreathers. Hade tried to flee but one pulled a ballistic knife and fired it into his leg, taking him down.

Hade was pulled over onto his back as one of the large black figures knelt above him. "Okay, Batarian you can make this easy on yourself or you can do the stupid thing and try to be tough. I want to know how you got the pirate and slaver groups to join together for the attack. It would take a lot of capitol and strength to bring them together. So think carefully and tell me what I want to know."

Hade spat at the helmet of the man. "Go to Hell, you beast!" The Black Hand just sighed, "I didn't want to do this, Mike show him the error of his ways." Another one, this one's armor was a little smaller pulled a flamethrower and lit the pilot light and pressed it into the wound from the knife the Shadow had put in his leg. "_**YGAAAAAAHHH!"**_The pain was excruciating and he felt like his entire leg was on fire. "_Ok Ok, The Hegemony gave us the funds and weapons to bring the groups together for a strike at the Humans. They hated the fact that the Council would do nothing to stop the HDI from colonizing the Verge."_

"Alright good one last thing, then we will let you go." Hade looked shocked but nodded. "Do you have anything to prove this. I won't let you go until you give me physical proof." Hade sighed in relief. "I have the video file from his call on my Omni-tool. _Here take them!_ _You have what you want, let me go! Please!" _

"Today is your lucky day Batarian, Now go before I change my mind." Hade fled into the hangar to his ship.

A Disciple stepped next to him. "Sir, should we let him go?" The commander nodded, "Command wanted us to let him go, besides he has a tracking device on him that will lead us to the others and spread the story of this place. Come on, we have to secure the rest of this building."

* * *

**The Citadel **

**Hours after the Burning of Torfan**

The Council was in an emergency meeting with the Human and Batarian representatives. The meeting had only started and already the Batarian started yelling about reparations from the HDI. He started yelling three minutes ago about his people's suffering and still hadn't stopped. "They should be paying for the troubles they have caused the Hegemony! We will not let this insult go unnoticed."

He pulled a video up and played it. "This is what these savages did to Torfan!"

The video was a little grainy at first then cleared. They watched as a small aircraft dropped a bomb towards the planet surface. When the bomb blew they were shocked at the devastation caused by the bomb. The video went to static for a moment and then they could see the field of hellfire burning bright. After a moment they heard a Batarian yell out, "Look in the fire!" Indeed they could see black figures marching through the flames as easy as if there weren't any flames. Once the figures got closer they unleashed blue flames and swept them across the field against the Batarian pirates. They watched as a fight ensued as the Batarians gave ground to the invading forces. After they got the bunker door closed the Council and civilians thought they were safe but Anita and Donnel knew better, the Black hands' flamethrowers burned at nearly a thousand degrees Fahrenheit. They watched shocked at the door growing red and patches melting and running like water down the door.

Someone spoke in awe, "_Spirits, _What in the hell are they!?"

Anita stepped forward, "They are the Black Hand, they will cleanse the Heretics against Humanity with Purifying Flame. They hold fire as the greatest weapon in their arsenal from incendiary rifles to "Firestorm" fuel air bombs and magnesium artillery shells. Their vehicles include the mighty Purifiers.

The video skipped forward to where the pirate defenders fought tooth and nail against the Black Hand who marched forward relentlessly as Mantis drones took Mantis gunships out of the air easily with a barrage of Tiberium core missiles. Then a _HUGE _mech that was double the size of the Purifier mechs strode forward on the four legs. It spoke in a loud deep voice, "_**The Redeemer has Risen! Onward to Victory!"**_It strode forth and destroyed literally everything in it's path uncaring about the damage it caused. The Redeemer kept getting closer then when it filled the screen it raised one of it's huge feet and the foot stepped straight onto the origin of the video. It then went to static as everyone was in shock at the might the HDI could bring against just a group of pirates.

Anita was calm as he railed against them, finally when the video stopped she spoke to cut him off. "What suffering have we caused exactly, we attacked a slaver base that was holding kidnapped colonists from a pirate attack on Elysium. So unless the Hegemony would like to confess to the attack they will receive nothing from us and trust me Ambassador if the Hegemony had anything to do with this attack Torfan will be just the beginning. We warned you about this. We will declare war on you for your crimes. They," Anita gestured towards the Council," might let your crimes go unpunished because they are too afraid of trying but we will not let your childish behavior go unchecked."

After she finished her com-pad flashed. Looking at it her eyes widened and she gave the Batarian a feral grin. "Ooohhh, You guys just fucked up big time." She stepped forward and announced, "I have new evidence to submit to this meeting."

She hit a button and over the speakers in the room a voice spoke, "_Ok Ok, The Hegemony gave us the funds and weapons to bring the groups together for a strike at the Humans. They hated the fact that the Council would do nothing to stop the HDI from colonizing the Verge."_ Anita smirked and spoke again, "I also have proof in the form of the Batarian Hegemony leader speaking to the leader of the pirates who attacked Elysium."

At that people who were watching the meeting from the side lines knew the Hegemony was in trouble but the trouble came from the wrong group. Tevos stood, "We will speak to the Hegemony and tell them this kind of behavior is not appropriate from them. Rest assured this kind of thing will not happen again." She sat and seemed to think Anita would accept that.

She drew a breath and spoke harshly, "Are you idiots that dumb? You think telling them off will work when it has done nothing in the past. You know what? Don't worry about it we will take care of the problem ourselves." She turned to the Batarian ambassador. "The HDI declares war on the Batarian Hegemony due to an unprovoked attack on our borders and civilians. You will be punished for your crimes against Humanity." The Council stood horrified.

"You can not do this, we forbid it!" Tevos yelled at Anita. She looked at them with a raised brow. "What right do you have to order us about? We will not sit by and let innocent people be kidnapped and enslaved like you do."

The Batarian ambassador snarled at Anita, "You will pay for this Human!" He pulled a pistol and aimed it at her. Around Anita eight Shadow team members decloaked and aimed their dual N7 Hurricanes at the ambassador and his two guards. Anita smiled and turned to walk away, "The HDI will not let pirates and slavers attack our colonies because its too difficult to guard our colonies and that we don't want to provoke the Terminus Systems." With that she left with Donnel as the guards watched the Council and Batarians. After an unseen signal the Shadows one by one stepped away and cloaked themselves.

Everyone was surprised by the turn of events. Humanity just declared war on the Hegemony and told the Council to screw themselves and shown they were capable of cloaking infantry. Things were going to get interesting.

* * *

**Codex**

Purifier: Used exclusively by the Black Hand. It was the predecessor to the Avatar mech and was fitted with a subliminal messaging system to boost morale and comes pre-equipped with a flamethrower and laser. Recently the Black Hand's increase in use of Flame tech caused them to use a fire cannon rail gun that fires a slug of thermite mixed into Magnesium.

Redeemer: An unit built to counter the MARV the Redeemer is a epic unit built to give heavy damage while living through anything thrown at it. Armed with a Obelisk-based tri-part laser on it's left arm and two infantry hard-points on it's shoulder blades. It is the representation of Nod's power on the battlefield

Vertigo bomber: The Vertigo was a stealth bomber used during the Third Tiberium War. Holding a single bomb capable of leveling small buildings it was a heavy short range bomber used by the Nod forces to great effect.

* * *

**Well the Hegemony is fucked. The burning of Torfan was just the beginning. Tell me what you think of the pure Tiberium life forms, I thought it would be cool. Also someone special will be showing up next chapter, If you guess correctly I will give you a prize. Now read and Review or I will sic my Viseroids on you.**


	3. The return of the Scrin and The Marked

**Hello everyone. I just want to say NO ONE GUESSED RIGHT! BWHAAAA! Now then I have a few things to say.**

**IveGotNoIdea: It is against Citadel Law that's also why ships can't fire on planets. Also I didn't have to buff the mass accelerators. I got the information straight from the wiki. A nuke would be illegal cause it causes a nuclear winter.**

**MammonDaughter: No it's not the ninth doctor or any incarnation. I don't know about the synthesis but I like the thought.**

**Kitsune of darkfire: I do but I am not sure how to get one.**

**Srbin: I don't know about large-scale infection but we will see. I will be chronicling most of the war and having it show the events of other battles not seen, by HDI, Hegemony, and Citadel views. It will take a little longer to update but will be longer.**

**Onsholo: You will like something about this chapter. **

**Astol: Yes the Council sucks. They do nothing while spouting galactic peace. **

**hornet07: Glad you liked that part. I loved the visual image of the Black Hand marching through the flames with a Redeemer with flamethrowers standing over them.**

**baron239: No, just no. I like to think Kane got his well deserved rest after spending millennia alive trying to die. Immortality is a cruel curse. No one else might agree but living after everyone you know and love is dust has to be the worst thing ever. In my opinion.**

**DarkOw1: You scare me but then again I agree with you. LET THE HERETICS BURN!**

**I also thank everyone else who reviewed. Now then my followers, we will rise and TAKE OVER THE WORLD! Bwahaaaa! (Axel hits me with a mallet) Sorry everyone Shade's psychiatrist says to let you know he is indeed an insane psychopath and he doesn't own mass effect or command and conquer.**

* * *

**Secret Science base**

**Torfan**

Sergeant Shepard stood before his squad. "Alright marines, it's go time. The Fleet did a deep Tiberium Vibration Scan for anything of note. They found this, all we know is that it was a science base about a week ago until the Batarians upped and left. We are investigating due to the that we found Tiberium in the scans. So our job is to secure that facility and let our VIP figure out what is going on."

Axel, who was fitting on his brand new N7 Defender armor, spoke up, "Sergeant, Who is our VIP?"

Shepard nodded and motioned for the VIP to come in from the cockpit. "Our VIP for this mission is an egghead from Central Command." The team grumbled no one wanted to deal with babysitting eggheads all day. "Ms. Tabakov will be working with us on this matter."

A beautiful young woman stepped next to Shepard. She had dark red hair with a lightly tanned skin tone. Her eyes were a vermillion green that seemed to spark with an intense want to learn. She gave the team a slight smile. "Please call me Abigail." "Alright marines, we hit dirt in five mikes."

Once the transport hit dirt the ramp fell open and four marines ran down the ramp, two falling to the sides and hitting a knee and sweeping the area with their rifles raised. "Clear." The other ten marines fell out in order with Abigail in the middle of the formation. The team quickly crossed the ten meters to the bunker door and fell into place on the sides of the doorway.

Shepard spoke quietly on the comm line. "Alright, I want Axel, Mike, and Ben to breach the room and get into defensive positions while we cover them from the doorway." On the bottom of his HUD Shepard saw the green acknowledgement lights flash green.

Axel hit the detonate button on the breaching charge Ben had hooked to the door. After the door was blown Axel rushed in as the blast was dying down and swept his Mattock across the large antechamber. After seeing no one he called, "Clear!" Shepard and the rest of the squad fell in.

"Alright, Intel says that this installation was inhabited a week ago but then the Batarians bugged out in a hurry so we are going to be careful and make sure this place is empty of hostile. If there are hostile I want you to give them a nice welcome."

**HURRAH! **Shepard has Axel and Ben swept the left area of the installation. The place went underground six floors and was a basic design with a large square room and two small corridors going in opposite directions. The first two floors seemed to be mainly offices and other useless rooms. Axel and Ben leapfrogged down the corridor staying silent incase of anything. Finally on the forth floor Ben found a computer hub.

Inside was six four feet tall computer servers, in the back was a bank of computers that seemed to have been shredded with gunfire.

"Shepard, this is Axel. We found a computer hub on the fourth floor left corridor. Do you copy me?"

"I read you Axel me and the doc are on our way. Secure that floor and don't go any farther."

Axel and Ben secure the floor and put down a few claymore and block off doors to make it harder to get in. After five minutes of waiting Shepard and Abigail met up with them in the computer hub.

Abigail quickly steps up to the closest server and hooked a small portable laptop to it and started to try to get access to it. "It will take a few minutes but I should be able to get access to some of the files on this. Doesn't look like they took the time to erase the files just blew up the computers hooked to them."

**Axel's point of view**

Ben and I were quickly scouring the floors for anything important. "Holy Shit, Axel get over here."

I turned and saw Ben at what looked like a freezer. Walking over I asked, "What did you find, It better be good."

"How about a bunch of Scrin corpses? Is that good enough?" Shocked I run over and peer inside and indeed hanging from racks like slabs of beef were Scrin infantry like Ravagers, Disintegrators, and even a few Cultists. "Hey Shepard, It's Axel again. Ben found a freezer full of dead Scrin bodies. I think we should get a full garrison force here and hold this lab so we can get these bodies out of here."

"Say that again Axel. Did you just say the Batarians had a freezer full of Scrin, dead Scrin?"

"Yeah, now then have you heard from the others. I don't think something's right here."

Just then I saw Mark at the end of the corridor but something was strange about him. There was a purplish glow around him that seemed familiar and gave me a bad feeling. He walked towards us stiffly and mechanically. Then behind him I saw what was creating the glow.

"CULTIST!" I snapped my Mattock up and fired on the creepy creature even as Mark fired his Katanna at me. Right as my shield was about to fail the Cultist collapsed under the fire and the glow died from around Mark right as he was about to kill me. looking at the dead Cultist I was surprised to see it was a Batarian body that was used to create it. "Well, now we know why the Batarians fled."

"Axel, What happened? Last thing I remember was a glow and then a yell and nothing after that."

_So there are living Scrin, but how? They couldn't have survived this long unseen. _"Alright, lets meet up with Shepard and Abigail then get the hell out of here."

**3rd person view**

The trio quickly hurried back to the server station keeping an eye out for Scrin. They had reached the fifth floor when a squad of Disintegrators charged them from a ripped apart door leading to the center section of the floor. The quadruped mechanical horrors fired their plasma cutter beams at them as they dived into cover and blind fired at them. There were around eight of them but only three could easily fire at them. Then Ben stood and fired off a burst of rounds at one killing it when Axel saw a flash of silver and Ben froze. Then like a puppet with its strings cut Ben's body fell but in pieces. "Buzzers!" Axel yelled as Mark fired his Katanna into the Buzzer swarm.

"Shepard its Axel. We got live Scrin trying to kill us. So far we have confirmed living Cultists, Disintegrators, and Buzzers. We have to get out of here. I think the rest of the squad is dead."

"Roger that Axel. Meet up at the servers and then we will pull out. I will try to get ahold of Command for reinforcements."

Mark threw a concussion grenade and fired two slugs into the doorway. After the concussive blast they fell back to the stairway. Sprinting up the stairwell they took turns firing bursts of rounds down to the Scrin chasing them.

Entering the fourth floor Axel ran head first into a shotgun barrel. "Shit!" Luckily it was just Shepard standing there.

Lowering his rifle Shepard smiled, "Glad you guys are okay. Come on, we don't have long before they manage to cut us off from the surface. I got ahold of Command but it wasn't a good connection."

After a few minutes of running, with a few dead Disintegrators behind them, they made it up to the top-level. They ran full tilt to the door when a Shock Trooper Blinked in front of the door to their freedom. "SSHHIITT!" Shepard yelled as they slammed into cover four meters away from the Trooper. The large mechanoid stood before the door watching back and forth looking for targets.

"Alright, Axel, when I run for the door behind us I want you to pump it full of lead as soon as it turns to fire at me." Axel nodded but Abigail grabbed Shepard's Predator pistol and popped the mag to check the rounds and seeing a full clip slammed it in and pulled the slide and aimed at the Shock Trooper.

Seeing the two men look at her in shock. "What? My grandfather taught me how to use a pistol." They nod and get ready. Shepard ran for the door they had entered from as the Shock Trooper focused on him and fired several plasma discs at him. As Axel and Abigail fired their weapons at it the Trooper Blinked and appeared in front of Shepard.

"Shit!" Shepard slammed into the Shock Trooper causing them both to fall. Grabbing a grenade off his belt Shepard slammed the grenade into the small mouth like thing and pulled the pin. Rolling away from it he went flying from the Tiberium explosion from the grenade detonating the Tiberium inside the Shock Trooper.

Axel pulled Shepard up and they grinned at their success.

_**DDDUUUNNN!**_

The heavy bass boom wrecked havoc on their ears as the floor started to shake and shift. They fled the building as the floor ruptured and a huge leg broke its way through.

"Holy Shit!" Axel yelled as a Eradicator Hexapod started to pull itself from the wrecked floor. The Eradicator saw then and unleashed its plasma disc battery which sent them fleeing from the unbelievable firepower taking out the Valkyrie. Taking cover behind the wreckage of the Valkyrie Shepard tried to contact Command.

"Command, This is Sergeant Kevin Shepard. We need immediate fire support, we have a Eradicator Hexapod, I repeat, a Eradicator Hexapod."

Right after he spoke they heard a whistle and watched as six Specter artillery shells impacted the Eradicator and pushed it back into its hole. Scorpion Tanks rolled past them firing laser rounds into it to keep it from being able to fully remove itself.

"Sergeant Shepard, This is Command. We understand the emergency but all available units in your AO are tied down by Batarians. Your on your own so bug out soldier. I repeat, get the Hell out of there. That's an order."

Shepard looked to Axel and Abigail in shock. "Then who are they?"

**"Awakened forward. Enlightened support them." **They turned to see Marked of Kane Awakened and Enlightened moving towards them.

"Command, we have Marked of Kane helping take care of the Scrin Epic, I repeat, Marked of Kane are here. Do you copy?"

The Eradicator finally pulled itself out of the hole and stood allowing several Scrin to pour out of the ripped hole and start engaging the Marked in a full-out brawl of firepower. Vertigo bombers dropped their payloads and while Shock Troopers fire their plasma discs at them. Scorpions and Devour tanks roared while Avatars covered Awakened and Enlightened charged the enemy infantry ripping apart Disintegrators while firing rockets at Buzzer swarms.

The fight was going in the Marked's favor due to there being no real Scrin vehicle or aircraft when a large Drone Platform fled the hole and tried to escape the planet during the fight as the Disintegrators just charged forward as they fired at the Awakened without a care of their causalities.

Axel noticed the Drone Platform after killing a Disintegrator. "Shepard, look!" Shepard saw the Drone. "If we let it escape we will be fighting a two front war and we don't have the man power for it."

"Fuck. Command, I have a priority alpha. We have a Drone Platform trying to escape the planet. We need a supersonic aircraft to bring it down now before it escapes."

**BOOM! ** A single rail gun pierces the Platform and sends it crashing to the surface as a HDI Destroyer flies over dropping several Zone Trooper drop pods down to secure the situation. Shepard and Axel stand over the smoking battlefield relaxing after the intense fight with the Scrin.

"I hope the that some of the team is still alive down there", Axel looked over at Shepard. "I am sure some of them are okay. There were no Cultists out here. They are probably still down there."

Axel started to laugh. "What is so funny?"

"Just thinking of the Council's faces when they hear about the Marked and Scrin. Priceless!"

* * *

**Citadel**

**Citadel Intelligence**

Deep inside the Citadel was a large room with some of the best intelligence agents in Citadel Space. These were the people the Council went to when they needed a potential threat watched. Mainly composed of STG there were other agencies representatives there. There were a dozen agents there waiting for the Councilors to start the meeting.

A door in the back of the room opened and the Councilor walked in as the agents started to get ready to show their intel.

Tevos stepped forward, "Thank you all for coming, I hope we find something to stop this war before it gets started."

A Salarian agent stepped forward, "I am afraid that this war has already started. Batarian warships are disappearing as the Human war fleet starts encroaching on Batarian worlds. No real invasions have started but we still don't even know how they are fighting and disappearing without a trace."

Varias interrupted, "What do you mean disappear? They can't just vanish without a trace. They had to go somewhere!"

A Turian agent spoke next, "We barely are able to get anything worth while on them. It's like they know every move we make and are prepared for them. The latest we have discovered is that they hire Quarians on colonies and even military ships for their Pilgrimages and give them simple tech for things like agriculture for a couple of years of contract labor as engineers and even scientists for something called the T.G.I. We still know nothing about the group except they have bought small mass effect technologies."

The door flew open as an Asari ran in. "I got something from Torfan! The Turians didn't have first contact with Humanity." Breathing hard she ran up to the podium with a OSD. "On that is video directly from Torfan. The planet has been taken by the Humans but they haven't attacked anybody else but the important thing is this."

She played the video of three Humans fleeing a building that then was destroyed from the inside by a giant six-legged creature. The thing was huge with two tall horns and dozens of little tendrils hanging from its belly. It was a darkish purple almost royal purple. It roared as the Humans fled and raised the front arms and fired a storm of purplish discs that ripping the Valkyrie transport apart.

"Goddess! What is that?" The Asari who had brought the Intel spoke quietly.

"From what we gained from the Human's communications, It's called an Eradicator Hexapod. I didn't gain anything but it is called an Epic unit, possibly due to its incredible size. Then an army of machines helped them fight the Eradicator. They are called the Marked of Kane, I looked them up in the Human history files. They are an army of cyborgs who gave their minds and bodies. They feel no fear, remorse, or even hatred. They only exist as the physical embodiment of LEGION's will."

Varias turned to the video watching the soldiers march forward without any fear of death. "Why would anyone want to build such abominations in an army."

A Salarian stepped forward to watch the fight. "Any other army would have fled at the sight of the Eradicator. What I want to know is what are these things and why the Humans hold fear of them. They must have fought once before."

Tevos nodded, "I want you to find anything about these aliens and what they are capable of. Now we came to find out what you think the threat level the Humans are. Shall we get to that now?"

The Intel agents nod and prepare their presentation of the Humans. A Salarian spoke first.

"What you must know is that the Humans are one of the most dangerous enemies now. They could have possibly pushed the Rachni back with enough time and even stopped the Krogan with their relentless need to survive. They have fought more in their history than any species among us.

On a screen appeared an average Human male. "As you can see the average Human looks like the Asari with a few small differences. mainly the hair and skin color and being levo-acidic. The main difference between them and every other race we know of is that they barely use Element Zero. They use spare amounts in anything from civilian use all the way to mainline combat. They use technology they discovered themselves which has the long-term advantage."

Tevos interrupted him, "What do you mean long-term advantage? We have advanced faster than them."

The Salarian nodded. "Yes we did but we have copied a dead race. Once we run out of things to copy and advance what will we do. We are creatively sterile. No one tried to think of new technology until the Humans arrived and showed us that Mass Effect technology is not the only usable or best technology."

A Turian stepped forward. "The Human's technology uses the crystal known as Tiberium. It absorbs and replicates the heavy metals around it by leeching them. They mine the Tiberium from the surface and break it down which allows them to siphon the metals. This allows them easy credits for their economy and allows them to build things more quickly and efficiently then we can. That advantage has allowed them to pierce our economy and even now we would suffer economically if we banned Human goods."

The screen then showed a Human in combat armor carrying an assault rifle. "The Human's Military is powerful in its diversity. Where we have only so many vehicles they have dozens that can do one or more roles in the field. The Riflemen are their mainline troopers. Instead of carrying four collapsible weapons they carry two weapons and a pistol."

"Their frontline troopers are also the Rocket teams and Heavy Infantry. The Rocket teams use Rocket launchers to work as anti-air or anti-armor to support the Riflemen. The Heavy Infantry use mainly LMGs and grenade launchers to work as the shock troops. Their premier frontline infantry are the Zone Troopers and Zone Raiders. These troopers are the best with heavy armor that is the same composite as their heavy tanks. They carry rail gun rifles that can punch through the armor of even light combat craft."

A picture of a Human woman in a light combat suit that had a pair of metallic wings flaring from it's back. She stood floating in the air. "The Humans have specialty troops like the Rocket Angel, the Vikings, and the Commando. The Rocket Angel was created by the Japanese during WW2 as an Elite Infantry combat force. It is an all female corp. After the war they were used mainly as showy bodyguards. They all wear an asynchronous flight suit with a Tiberium core swarm missile launcher and a lighting whip which can cause great damage to even light vehicles. It's main problems is that the suit keeps them high enough during flight that anti-air can target them and the whip and missiles are programmed to target ground units."

A picture of a man larger then anybody except maybe a Krogan stood carrying a large weapon. "The Viking stands a meter taller then most Humans and usually descend from the Norse or Russian areas of the planet Earth. They carry incredibly powerful armor but lose speed and maneuverability in favor of protection. They carry a large laser rifle and heavy explosives. They are usually sent in with either fast infantry support or the Prowler-class war mechs." Beside the Viking stood a large metal creature that looked like a varren. "This mech stands about two meters high and is modeled after the Earth animal a wolf."

The picture was replaced by a man who looked like the Zone Trooper but more streamlined. "This is the Commando. Their training is backed by centuries of tradition and success on the battlefield. They use a training program that has a 22% fatality rate and only 3% percent of the recruits make it to the end of training. They are considered the toughest of the Human infantry and are quite capable of giving a Spectre or Krogan a fight even in hand to hand. Wearing Kevlar6 over a Mitsubishi elasticized core with a DGRS fusion sensor helmet and a Jenner jump jet unit they are quite capable of great through the battle quickly and support their defense. Carrying an assault railgun carbine they can tear through infantry and even light vehicles and using their stealth training they can plant C-11 on walker legs and detonate them. "

Tevos quickly interrupted him. "Did you say stealth training? As in actual visual stealth?"

"We do not know at this time. The Commando is the best of their infantry. Unfortunately we know little about the Brotherhood of Nod sec of the Human's arsenal, they seem mainly for quiet recon or covert operations. We do know they mainly use militia as their frontline troops and few specialty units. The newest would be the Scavenger buggy. It is a combination of the GDI Pitbull and the Nod Raider buggy. Adding the Pitbull's rocket launchers to the back of the Raider it allows it to maintain its recon ability while also giving it a better anti-infantry platform as well."

The Salarian looked at the Councilors for a moment. "I will take any questions now."

Varias nodded. "What about these Black Hand? They seemed to be something we need an understanding about."

The Salarian nodded and hit his Omni-tool. A picture of a large man standing tall carrying a flamethrower striding towards the camera with flames rising in the background cam up. He had a full black armor with three red ovoid lenses and a crimson cloak fluttering behind him.

"The Black Hand are more shock troops than stand up combat. They use rush tactics to overwhelm their enemy with the flamethrowers they habitually use. They gained the name from their first creed. 'When we are crushing the black hearts of our oppressors, we will find our hands blackened. We cannot cultivate our garden without digging in the dirt.' They were a covert unit who enforced the Brotherhood of Nod's teachings."

"They refuse the use of stealth tactics and robotic soldiers preferring to crush the enemy under their feet with no trickery. They use no aircraft in combat. They will use a Black Hand priest to bless and purify their combat walkers believing them to be near heresy. They are a religious group, they used to follow the teachings of Kane about Tiberium but now follow many religions believing it to be their sacred duty to protect the Human race from all enemy foreign and domestic."

Tevos nodded, "What of their vehicles? What kind of threats can we expect from them?"

A picture of a Human on a slim floating frame appeared. "This is a Quickstrike anti-grav attack bike. This is a fast response and recon craft. It is extremely fast but hard to control. It carries two tiberium core missile launchers and dual SMGs in the front to act as anti-infantry defense. It can easily 'leap' over obstacles to allow it easy handling at high-speed. Mainly used for recon it can quickly get in and out before being spotted."

A picture of a large quad treaded tank with two large cannons appeared. "This is the Mammoth Mk.3. It has completely replaced the Predator tank as the main battle tank of the HDI. with two 150mm rail gun cannons and two 4.75 inch missile pods, the Mammoth is the heaviest tank in their arsenal. Carrying heavy Hexagonal armor allowing it to take heavy damage without flinching it uses it to power its way through enemy defenses with impunity. Due to its great size it will crush anything smaller in its path. It is the greatest expression of the HDI's attitude of armor superiority."

A small car appears next. With slanted armor over the front wheels and a wide back carrying a large machine-gun. "This is the Guardian APC. It is mainly used as a troop transport it also carries four mobile repair drones. It carries land mines it can deploy to the battlefield to create an instant minefield. Capable of firing armor-piercing rounds the Guardian APC is useful for fighting light vehicles or even larger craft with Rocket teams firing from inside the APC."

A picture of a small strange craft showed up next. It was semi-circular with a long metal pole with a third wheel poking out from behind. "This is the Rig, used as a support vehicle is can unpack into a mobile Battle Base." The image unfurled into a small building with two Guardian cannons and two SAM launchers. "Used to hold off attacks and repair friendly vehicles with three repair drones. This allows HDI vehicles to fight longer in the field before coming back to be repaired."

A picture came up of a small walker. Standing on it's two short legs with a squat body, it seemed less threatening except for the twin 20mm miniguns. "This is the Wolverine Mk.5. Used as anti-personnel recon it is a fast vehicle capable of tearing infantry apart while evading tank fire. It is not able to stand against most tanks but is hard to pin down and destroy one-on-one. Using armor-piercing rounds it can cause some damage to the lighter tanks but will still most likely fail."

A familiar image showed next. This large walker stood on two double jointed legs with a thin wide upper body with a large cannon on the right side. "This walker should be familiar. This one showed up during that leaked video which we believe was sent by the Humans during the First Contact War."

The Council was shocked at that admission. "What do you mean by that!?" "We believe that the Humans had a few counter Intel agents who took the Turian soldier's Omni-tool to send the video to Citadel News. It showed that the Human race was powerful and alerted the rest of the galaxy to the fight between the Turians and Humans."

"Back to the Titan Mk.2, used as an assault walker it is used as a close range artillery unit capable of crushing enemy vehicles under its feet as we saw during the Contact War. Used only by Steel Talon companies because walkers have many weaknesses like destroy the legs and it will fall. The Titan will start to limp when it takes too much damage slowing it down and throwing off its aim."

Then a picture of a huge four-legged walker appeared on the screen. The walker had a thin long body with a twin chain gun under the chin with 4 heavy rail guns, 2 auto cannons, and 2 SAM batteries. "This is the Mammoth Mk.2 Heavy Walker. This Heavy Assault Walker is capable of obliterate enemy defenses and continue to blast their way through entire bases. Luckily This craft is still merely an old prototype that is rarely used anymore but it was shown to HDI generals last month on Shanxi. We believe that while it is not going to be frequently used unit it is a high threat to anything short of a ballistic missile."

"The Humans don't use many aircraft just four combat and the Valkyrie transport. There are the Thunderhawk gunships which are used as space gunships to transport boarding parties between ships. This ship was designed from an old Human video game called Warhammer 40k. The Thunderhawk was redesigned to be a quicker smaller ship to avoid the anti-air guns to allow an entire squad to board enemy ships. Armed with two laser turrets and a Tiberium core missile launcher, it is useful for either boarding or anti-fighter roles."

"The Valkyrie assault carrier is the backbone of the Humans transport system. The Valkyrie was also pulled from Warhammer 40k but was enlarged to three times its size to allow for more troops to be transport along with accompanying vehicles and armor. The Valkyrie uses two chain laser emplacements and carries a Tiberium core missile launcher battery as offensive protection with heavy armor allowing it to take a beating."

"There is also the Orca gunship. This angular aircraft is used as a strike ship and infantry support. Carrying a light mini gun and two tiberium core missile launchers it has great offensive ability and can launch sensor drones to allow easier visuals of the surrounding area. Its cousin the Hammerhead is mainly used in police action as a city patrol gunship. Carrying only two Vulcan cannons it is not as offensive as the orca."

"The last aircraft of the Humans is the Firehawk, an air superiority craft capable of carrying six rattlesnake air-to-air missiles and three Groundpounder incendiary bombs. It can travel in the upper atmosphere to quickly traverse the battlefield. The Firehawk was mainly used as an interceptor craft then a bomber as the Orca fires it's missile payload more manageably."

The Salarian nodded to the Council. "That is what we know of the HDI armory and it's capabilities but we are not even sure if that is all they can do. If we must fight them we should be prepared for anything to happen. Their Intel and Counter-Intel groups are able to challenge even the STG and their Commandos are at or above Spectre level. There is also the threat of their larger array of vehicles and craft."

"I pray we never have to fight a war with them. We could win with larger numbers but they would do a lot of damage and deaths. Be wary of them and don't think you know everything about them."

The Council left thinking about what they had learned.

* * *

**Alright everybody. This chapter might not be great but I have worse news. My friend looked over my storyline for the war and showed me a problem. I fell into the most common trap for my story's type. I made Humanity too powerful and made them almost godlike. So I am taking two weeks to rewrite the storyline to make it more realistic. I don't want to make it idiotic by Humans kicking the Batarians asses without the Batarians seeming like they could win. real life is not like that. So if you have any ideas on how I could do that don't hesitate to review or PM me. I like constructive criticism.**


	4. Paving the way

**Okay the war shall begin but first. I don't own Mass effect or Command and Conquer. If I did I would conquer the earth with the Marked of Kane. Also I am not going to make Humanity weaker but give the Batarians more ways to fight the Humans. **

**Also subsider34: Yes the Scrin will be active but not immediately. They will first need to build up their armies and to do that they need a lot of Tiberium. Lets see if anyone remembers a place full of Tiberium other than earth.**

**Kitsune of darkfire: true they are but I want this story to reach ten chapters easily. So the war must expand.**

**Everybody I am looking for a Beta-reader. I have my beta-reader profile up and am waiting for one.**

* * *

**Citadel Space**

**Demis Colony**

The colony world had suffered a hit when the Council's Tiberium studying lab blew and caused Tiberium to spread across the planet's surface. At first it wasn't so bad, the Tiberium even looked beautiful across the landscape but then the flora began to dye and the local fauna fled the area after some mutated into dangerous creatures.

Most of the colony left after that but a few die-hard colonists stayed behind to live. They refused to leave and were thinking of going independent and seeing if the HDI would buy the right to mine the Tiberium.

Anya Marina, a twenty year old Asari, was out running as was her morning ritual. She always ran ten miles before breakfast then went to work as a teacher at the primary school. She lived on the outskirts of town near a large mountain of Tiberium that used to be the lab.

As she was running a dark shadow fell over her. She looked up and saw a huge tall thing descending towards her. It was a large purple ship that had smooth curves to it. Several large legs separated and acted as landing gear. As it landed several small aircraft flew from it and swarmed around. They were a dark purplish-grey with two purple port holes in the front.

One fired a purple blast that hit the ground near here and caused the ground to explode. Anya fled running towards the small town near her house to warn the colonists. After five minutes of running she realized it was too late. A strange craft was floating over the city. It looked like the large craft that landed near her house except it was small with a large ring floating around it. It fired a large green energy into the center of the city. At first she didn't see anything happen but then she could see buildings fall as a cascade of green energy hit buildings than glow briefly then send another shockwave of energy while collapsing.

Anya watched horrified as the city became rubble with one strike of that huge weapon. Anya fled to her house hoping that those things hadn't reached it yet to send her Omni-tool data to anyone capable of saving her. Luck was apparently on her side today as there wasn't anyone there. Running inside she activated the off planet relay outside her house and sent an emergency call to the system fleet.

* * *

**Asari frigate _Trenate_**

Captain Klinesa Venras was having a bad day, make that a bad month. She was pissed that the Matriarchs had put her on this stupid patrol through he out Asari colonies. She hated it, nothing ever happened on this patrol route. The worst thing was passing Demis. Ever since the lab blew on it you could see the large green crystal scar across the surface.

"Captain, we have an emergency broadcast from the surface. We are also detecting strange signatures from the planet surface."

_Hugh, This better be good or else. _"Put it on-screen. Lets see what some backwater colonist thinks is important."

The screen flared to life as a young-looking Asari appeared. "Help! There are strange things attacking the colony. They already destroyed the city and are spreading across the planet. I don't want to die. Please help me."

Klinesa stood up. "ma'am, calm down and tell me clearly what is going on. I can't help you if I don't know."

"Okay, I went running this morning and a large purple craft landed near my house and these strange planes flew out and one tried to shoot me but missed. I ran towards the city to warn everybody but a large craft was floating above the city. It fired a beam into the city center, at first I thought it didn't do anything but then I saw a cascade of buildings collapse as they glowed white like the beam before and sent another blast of the energy. I then ran home to contact anyone who could help. I just activated the emergency beacon and you answered. Please help me!."

Towards the end the girl started to get more hysterical. Suddenly the door behind her crashed open and several figures ran in. At first Klinesa thought they were whatever was attacking but saw most of them had no weapons or armor. There were three Turians, a Salarian, four Asari, and even a Quarian and four Humans. Then right after them was a Human Zone trooper firing his rail gun at something outside.

Slamming the door shut the Zone trooper turned and noticed the Asari and the Comm active. "Sorry Ma'am about barging in but it was the only cover from the Scrin and we have kids with us. I hope that is someone who can help us."

Klinesa nodded, "I am but what is a Human soldier doing on an Asari planet?"

He looked at her and shrugged, "Well I have relatives living here and I was on leave dropped off here for the month and then this happened. I rounded up what survivors I could and we headed out of the city." He leaned and whispered, "Look woman, you need to get here fast. The Scrin will establish dominance quickly and your chances of getting us off planet will be cut to zero. We have children with us. Your weapons will do jack shit against ion shields. They will shred you alive. Send in a small drop ship and don't attack anything. They are probably starting harvesting operations and will ignore anyone not an active threat."

Klinesa nodded, "Fine but after we get away you are going to answer ever question I have about these things."

He nodded, "Just get here fast."

* * *

**Anya's Ranch House**

Anya was starting to freak out when the Human grabbed her by the shoulders. "Lady I need you to calm down. We have to stay calm to last until they get here. The others need a rock to cling to. You and I know the chances are slim but if they panic our chances are zero. Now do you have any weapons here." She nodded and gestured to a small gun rack holding a carbine and two small pistols.

"I use them in case of an animal attacking my house." He sighed at the small guns and nodded.

"They will have to do. I need someone to help me protect the house until rescue gets here." As she handed the carbine to one of the Turians and a pistol to the Salarian he handed his pistol to the male Human who was with him. "Here Mark, I only have two extra magazines on me."

One of the Turians asked, "Why do you guys live here anyway. No offense but most people out here don't like Humans. I would think you guys would stay near HDI space."

Mark looked at him, "Well since it won't matter anymore. My family moved here after the Tiberium explosion to keep an eye on the levels of Tiberium. The Scrin attacked our planet years ago when a similar explosion happened on Earth. My job was two-fold: One was to watch the crystal growth so when it got to near dangerous levels we could quickly send in teams to get rid of the growth, the HDI didn't want to leave it but needed to show the Council the dangers of Tiberium. Two was to see if the Scrin watched for Tiberium across the galaxy and if they did I was to try to trace them back to where they came from. That was a bust, I never got a warning."

The Zone trooper was keeping an eye out the window, "I am telling the truth about why and how I got here. Mark is my younger brother. I came on leave to see him since I won't be able to for a while." He was watching a horde of Disintegrators and several teams of Ravagers running around. "Hopefully that Asari woman will get here soon. There is a lot of Scrin out there. Name's Mike by the way."

Occasionally a few Scrin would wander near the house and everyone froze waiting for it to pass. So far it was good but they knew it wouldn't last forever. A Cultist was walking near the house and they could see it was the body of a Batarian, it walked up to the house and started to open the door when Mike pulled the door open hard causing the Cultist to stumble in. Mike grabbed it by the Prodigy implanted to its head and pulled the thing back as Mark slashed the Batarian's throat with a combat knife as Mike shot a pistol round into the bug.

One of the Asari crept up to the body. "Those bastard Batarians. Their helping these things?!" Mike shook his held. "No the bug gets hooked to the body, I hope this poor bastard was already dead when they did. I would imagine him being happy dead then stuck in a corner of his mind."

Unfortunately, that seemed to show the Scrin that enemies were in the house and a swarm of Disintegrators attacked the house. "Open fire, keep your guns from over heating, we can't afford the delay in fire. Shout if you see glints of silver anywhere."

Then a loud roar is heard as an Asari gunship flies over the house firing its cannon into the Scrin below. While the cannon is not entirely effective it does drive them back as the gunship lowers close to the ground so the people can get in. Mike grabs the two children an runs to the gunship and lifts them in as the rest follow firing their meager weapons at anything close to him.

Mike fired his rail gun as the swarm rushed closer when Mark slapped his shoulder to get him on the gunship. "Go, Go, Go!" Mark yelled as soon as Mike was safely onboard. The Asari didn't even wait another second immediately heading up as Mike could see two Stormriders chasing them.

Two cannons fired loud and they watched as the Stormriders were shot down. "Yeah!" Mark yelled as they made it into the frigate's hangar and it immediately pulled away from the planet and ran for the nearest Mass Relay.

They were escorted to the bridge where Klinesa stood waiting for answers. "What in the hell were those things?!"

Mike answered her, "Those were Scrin. No one has seen them in nearly two hundred years. They last were on Earth trying to kill us and harvest Tiberium. We need to contact the HDI. If the Scrin manage to complete a Threshold Tower then we might not be able to push them off the Demis."

Klinesa scoffs, "What good can they do? No we will tell the Council and that is that. Head for the Citadel."

Mark stops Mike from yelling at her, "Fine just drop us off somewhere we can get back to HDI space."

"No, You have information we need and you will be staying in the brig until we reach the Citadel. Relieve them of their weapons." Two Asari reach for their guns, hoping to be able to hand them over to the Council so they could study them and reproduce them, when Mike grabbed his rifle and using the enhanced strength of his power armor crushed the gun in his hands ruining it.

"Like hell I will let you backstabbing bastards take my rifle in one piece," he growled as the guards immediately raised their rifles at him. "You honestly think your Council can stop the Scrin. Our weapons are better and stronger than yours and we barely pushed them off Earth. You will need HDI support if you want Demis back."

"Mike, just calm down. You can't win here, they obviously don't care. We can contact the Ambassador once we get to the Citadel with your armor's communicator." This last part was hissed to him as the guards escorted them to the brig.

* * *

**Arturus Station**

David stood around a holo table of a small planet. "This is Censia, a small Batarian world. Hade S'kan led us to it. It's close to the Batarian home world but I intend to take it as it is the near the Relay to their home is a slave trade center. In a week they are have a huge slave sale. I want to strike while the sale is going on to maximize the chaos that will happen."

" Our Shadow teams have managed to get some surprise support on the planet. A field army will be dropped by Valkyries escorted by a full company of Rocket Angels and a flight of Condors."

The holo zooms in on a city. It was vaguely round with a few areas jutting out from the circle. Three areas light up red on the grey holo. "These three areas hold the slave pens. as you can see they are close to the large building in the middle. That is the city center and slave market. I plan on doing two things to these four eyed bastards. One will be to liberate all the slaves and take the planet."

" The other is that there are multiple arms factories and supply depots and while they are mostly full of gear to subdue slaves and prisoners on ships this will help. Without the ability to get slaves this will hurt their economy and ability to arm themselves since they rely on slave labor."

The holo zooms in to show the city and four miles around it. "The plan is to fire an EMP into the city center. This will allow the Valkyries and Rocket Angels to land untouched by anti-air. The Valkyries will land on the outskirts while the Angels will blitzkrieg the Batarian armor while the Vikings and Prowlers hit the city defenses as the Zones head for the slaves across the roof tops."

One of the generals stood. "What of enemy air support, Sir?"

"The Condors will deal with that. The fleet around the planet is small with only two frigates. They won't be a problem."

"How do you know they will not be a problem? They could easily bring in more and they can give the surface time to prepare."

David just smiled, "I have a group of ships taking care of it. Now is there anything anybody wants to add or suggest for the plan?"

No one steps forward, "Alright, the strike will be in one week. I want this to be a quick and decisive victory. If we can keep them on the back foot they have less chance on striking back."

* * *

**Citadel**

Three days had passed since Demis was taken and Mike and Mark's family were stuck in the so-called "protective custody" of the Council. "GOD DAMN IT!" Mike slammed his fist into the wall in irritation. "How goes contacting the Ambassador Mark, If we don't get ahold of her soon I am going to kill someone."

Mark laughed. "I have that all handled, I hope you like pizza. I managed to get those C-Sec assholes to let us order some pizza."

Mike just looked at him puzzled. "What does pizza have to do with the ambassador?" The bell rang and Mark walked over holding a small flash drive. The door opened to show a Quarian holding a pizza box. "Citadel Pizza, best on the Presidium. That will be twenty-five credits." Mike watched the slight of hand go down smooth as a river rock. As Mark activated his Omni-tool his arm brushed the Quarians arm and slipped the flash drive into a pouch on his arm that sealed immediately. "Thank you sir, have a good day."

Mike watched as the C-Sec guards search the Quarian but turn up with nothing. "Who is the Quarian and does he know what to do?"

Mark laughs, "That's Dylo, he is on his Pilgrimage and is working for the Intel Agency for two years. Anyway he will contact the Ambassador for us and get us out of here. Just be patient."

Mike just nodded for a second but as Mark was going to bring his family the pizza he could hear Mike getting pissed at waiting again.

* * *

**Council Chambers**

**Presidium**

The Council was in a debate about what to do with the fact that Demis was captured by an alien race that didn't even care to talk or even fight. So far these "Scrin" hadn't attacked any other planet in the system and was just harvesting Tiberium from Demis.

Varias was shouting for war against these things. "They are breaking Citadel Law. We must fight back."

Tevos sighed, "Isn't that how the mess with the Humans started, Varias? These Scrin don't know Citadel Law and probably don't care. They must be a powerful race if the Humans fear them enough to keep the knowledge of them quiet."

Vaskeer nodded, "Talking would probably do no good. If we must we can always let the Humans fight them for us. It has worked in the past."

Tevos agreed slowly, "Yes but the Humans don't trust us like others have in the past. How goes trying to reverse engineer the Human's rail guns?"

Varias shakes his head, "The best we can do is make our weapons fire larger slugs. The Human Zone Trooper in our custody crushed his rifle before anyone could take it."

"And just why is a Human in Council Custody for no good reason?" The Council flinched at hear Anita Goyle as she walked up. "You have no right to detain four HDI citizens here on the Citadel. They have committed no crimes, nor have they killed anybody."

Tevos spoke trying to keep the meeting calm, "They had Intelligence on an attack on our colony of Demis. They were needed to give their knowledge on this matter even if they didn't wish to."

Anita glared at her, "You didn't think to ask us? True we never told you about the Scrin but we never expected to have them return. They came from beyond our galaxy's rim. They must have seen the Tiberium explosion on Demis and came to harvest it."

She activates her com-pad computer and sends a few messages. "I will have someone pull what we know of them and have it sent. Now, I want my people released from their so-called "Protective Custody" and sent back to HDI space like they wanted."

She started to walk away before she turned back for a second, "By the way, a piece of advice. A straight on war against the Scrin won't work since they use worm-holes to bring in troops. Don't ever try to unlawfully detain my people again."

* * *

**Cenesia**

**three days before assault**

The Shadow Team was setting up landing beacons around the city to show areas of less resistance. Taking to the sky they flew over the city occasionally landing to set up artillery beacons and to slit the throat of Batarian guards.

One stepped silently beside another as they landed near the slave pins. "Are they ready?"

"Yes. As soon as the attack comes they will be ready. Send a message to command, they will need APCs to get some of them out though."

The first nodded and took flight. The attack would be quick. They just had to pave the way for the warriors to march.

"Peace through Power, brother." The figure whispered as he took flight after his brother, silent as a shadow.

* * *

**Kite's Nest Relay**

**Two days before assault**

The Batarian cruiser _The Khar'shan's Strength_ was patrolling the area beyond the Relay to the Kite's Nest System. There wasn't much on this side, just Cenesia and a couple of rocky planetoids.

"Captain, we are getting some weird readings in the system. We can't make them out. They just fade in and out before we get a good reading. What should we do, Sir?"

Suddenly the cruiser shuddered as an explosion hit the ship. "What the fuck was that?!"

The crew is rushing around trying to find out what that was. "We don't know! Decks three and five have ruptured and level four is completely vacuum."

They watched as the red beam of a laser fire into the main gun damaging the cannon while a small ship appeared. The small octagonal 304 meter ship quickly fled from their sight as they felt a trio of cannons hit their flanks.

"What the hell is that ship? Who in the Hell has stealth capability? I want that ship captured. It's tech could allow us to have our revenge against the Humans and then those pathetic Citadel Cowards."

The cruiser turned after the small ship to find it gone. Then from the opposite side a blast of laser fire hits the cruiser in the nose damaging it badly. Two Tiberium core torpedoes strike the Guardian lasers point-blank destroying them.

A fair distance away under its cloak was the Nod Torpedo Stealth Ship _The Silent Archer. _Standing on the bridge captain Steven Hackett watched the new stealth corvettes strip away the cruiser's Guardians and it's communication arrays. Soon the thing was defenseless from the _Archer _and it didn't even realize it.

"Prepare to fire the Liquid Tiberium Torpedo. Send a message to HighCom that the particle beams work well in space battles as anti-Guardian lasers." A chorus of yes sirs ring out as the cruiser keeps trying to the corvettes attacking it like wolves. The ship started to try to flee towards the relay. Hackett smiled, "Fire." A single torpedo fired silently in the dark void.

Aboard the cruiser the crew was panicking due to the realization that they were out classed in this fight. "Get us some reinforcements, NOW!"

"We can't, sir! The com is down! We have to run." The captain snarls but agrees to the sensible plan. "Get us out of here. We will come back with more ships to hunt down these cowards."

The crew was starting to relax as they almost reached the Relay when the torpedo hit the engines. The dark matter traces hitting the Tiberium caused a chain reaction in the drive core from the ezzo blowing up.

_**BOOOOOOOM!**_

The cruiser went up like a gallon of kerosene. Hackett smiled as the crew cheered. After a minute of celebrating Hackett raised a hand to quiet them down. "Alright, we did a good job but we have to get out of here to make sure no more fleets arrive. The attack is in two days, remember that."

* * *

**Steel Talon cruiser _The Iron Spirit_**

Axel was sitting on his bunk reading a letter written by Selrina on Thessia. She was doing better now that she was home but still suffered night terrors from her time stuck as a slave. "Hey Axel, that from Selrina?" Shepard asked as he walked in from the showers.

"Yeah, she's doing better now but still has some problems forgetting those years."

"Yeah well, you can't really blame her. Four years trapped in a cage can be terrifying, especially when your ten. Still, we have a job to do so get ready for the briefing. The assault is going down tomorrow," Shepard called as he walked to his cabin, "and tell Selrina I said hi."

Axel nods as he sets down his com-pad and heads to the Briefing Room. Once inside the Briefing Room Axel looked around to see several Zone Troopers, a couple of Zone Raiders, and even a pair of the new Viking soldiers. The Vikings wore the latest heavy armor from the T.G.I science labs. The armor had several old style influences on it. Using new crafting techniques they used the old plate armor as the base with mail-style underlay. The mail underlay was actually Nano-carbon fibers to allow strength without the heavy weight.

The Vikings were used as siege assault infantry with the Prowler attack mechs. These wolf like machines had small flechete guns and sharp claws and teeth. The mech were designed to be more flexible and agile than most Council Space mechs. Some mechs, while not in service long, had been customized by their Viking partner to show some individuality.

Walking into the room was Captain Pierce of the Steel Talons Company on the _Iron Spirit._ He walked to the Holo-table calling up a file to show. "Alright Marines, We will be assaulting Cenesia tomorrow. Shadow teams on the ground are getting the ground work ready for the assault. We have new support from the captives and slaves of the Batarians on Cenesia. They have liberated a few small shipments of weapons and explosives, so watch your fire down there as we don't want to hit the slaves."

The holo zoomed in on a section of the city. "These three plazas are our targets." Three small spaces light up blue signifying their importance. "Vikings will assault the city from the outskirts as Zone troopers will take to the roof tops to reach the plazas. Rocket Angels will attack across the city to keep them spread thin and unable to react quickly. Before the assault an EMP bomb will hit the city seconds before landing so we can expect no anti-air resistance."

The holo zoomed out and showed Viking company insignias slowly entering the city. "As Vikings enter the city five APC convoys will enter the city to extract the slaves and add some firepower to the troops. Any questions?"

A Zone Raider nodded. "What about air support, Sir? What can we expect in that regard?"

Pierce nodded, "Firehawks will be patrolling the city for Mantis gunships and other aerial threats but there will be several Orca Gunships on station to provide infantry support. We have three Vertigo bombers for priority threats."

The soldiers in the room nodded, HighCom had given them some real air support this time. "Now, there will be civilians in the city so unless they pick up a rifle and attack you I want no civilian fire, understand Marines?"

"Sir, Yes, Sir!" Chorused the room. "Good, dismissed!"

* * *

**Hey everybody, I have fixed my story. Thanks to everyone who contributed. Also, I won't be updating for a little while. Now before you get mad at me, my netbook's charger cable got chewed through by my dog. So instead of looking for a new compatible charger I am just going to get a new computer. So it will take a little while. I will try to write on my parents computer but no promises.**

**Also please read and review. Otherwise I will Sic' Viseroids on your souls. BWHAAHAHAHHAAAAAAA!**

**Have a good day everybody. **


	5. The opening battles

**Ok hello. I am sorry but I still haven't gotten a new computer, I am using my sister's. Now about the Asari's age in the last chapter sorry. I forgot about the aging difference. Now I have gotten so many reviews about the sonic weapons in space, for the last time it is a legit theory and if that doesn't satisfy you then deal with it. Now I am glad for the support. **

**Let the story begin.**

* * *

**Arturus Station**

David was sitting at his desk when Mike Stewart, the HDI-Council liaison walked into his office. "Sir, Do you have a minute?"

David looked up for a moment, "Yeah, sit down. Now what is it that you need?"

Mike pushed a paper forward, "The Council is about to go to war against the Scrin. We both now they will either fail or suffer extreme causalities to win back the planet. I am suggesting helping them."

David frowned as he looked through the projected causalities and percentage of failure against the Scrin for the Council. "I don't see why we need to give them support. We have our war with the Batarians to deal with. We don't have the troops to spare for a campaign."

"I agree sir. But there are people around who heard tales from their grandparents about the Scrin assault on Earth and everyone has heard of them in school and seen the documentaries. They will start to panic once they learn of the Scrin presence on Demis. We don't need to offer troops. I am suggesting we show them how to build weapons actually capable of harming the Scrin. I am not suggesting the particle beams or our better energy weapons but rail gun weapons and other usable tech. We also believe that a Salarian STG team managed to get a few Tiberium shards during our assault on Torfan."

David nodded. "Yeah, my Intelligence teams have pretty much confirmed it. I have given the order to use high explosive missiles. But you are correct, if the Council fails to win then we would have to deal with the problem ourselves. Send a team of our best techs and scientists in rail gun tech and a couple strategists who know what to do against the Scrin to the Citadel. Better to nip it in the bud."

Mike nodded and walked out of the office. David sighed and turned back to his paperwork. "I hope that this doesn't bite us in the ass later."

* * *

**Citadel Science labs **

**three weeks later**

The science labs were in full swing as the Citadel scientists were learning everything they could from the HDI scientists and strategists. Makos and other IFVs were in various states of reassembly to merge the new rail gun weapons they were building. Next door was a firing range built to test infantry weapons using a modified mass accelerator to fire larger rounds to punch through thick Scrin armor. Vids from the Scrin battles on Earth were being shown to the generals and other combat people to brief them on Scrin tactics and combat units.

"The main Scrin infantry is the Disintegrator. They run in packs and will try to close in on you so keep them at a distance and pour in the fire. Their bodies are filled with a corrosive fluid so try not to run them over. The Shock Troopers are the Elite Infantry and will Blink into a combat zone so keep you eyes open."

The Council watched all this going on as Mike stood beside them. "Well its not much help but your men will have some knowledge of the them and your weapons got an upgrade. I wish you luck on taking your planet back. Try and destroy the radiation transmitter and the Scrin will fall."

Tevos turned to him. "We thank you for the help and support. It gives me hope for the future if we can put aside our differences to support each other against a common enemy."

Mike left shaking his head as they watched the activity in the rooms. _Why do they think we did this out of the kindness of our hearts? We needed the Scrin taken care of or weakened at least. _

* * *

**Kar'shan**

Bolak Terak stood at the head of the table looking at the other leaders of the Batarian species. "We need to do something about these Humans. If they keep this up our way of life will die. Dozens of ships have vanished only to be found as burning wrecks. I WANT THEM DESTROYED!" He roared at the others.

One of the Batarians stood, "Sir, we just don't have the funds to counter them. Slaves have been revolting ever since they found out. We spent too much money on the "Pirate" fleets that we don't have a true navy or military. They have too many weapons and tactics for us to easily counter them. We dig ditches to stop the walkers, they send in those hovering tanks as engineers build bridges. We mine an area, they send in planes to bomb us."

"Fine then, I am authorizing WMDs on them. Fuck the Council. They won't do anything against us. I want those upstart Humans to pay for what they have done. What has our scientists discovered about the crystal we recovered from the Humans?"

A Batarian in a lab coat stepped forward. "The crystal emits a radiation we are barely able to watch, unfortunately we can't stop the radiation and it is lethal. We left a slave in the room with it and he sickened and die in two days. This is how he looked like after." A picture of a Turian appeared on the screen. He was bloated at points with several splits in his skin with a glowing green pus oozing out. There were small specks of crystal growing across his skin. "The crystal has mutagenic properties but usually kills the victim before any useful mutations appear. The crystal is pretty volatile. That is pretty much all we have discovered so far."

* * *

**Censia Colony system**

**Outer System**

Several HDI warships slowly approached the Censia colony. Five flights of twenty Condor fighters flew from them powered down to slip past the sensors covering the planet. The warships prepared their ships for combat and fired long range laser cannons on the Dreadnought that sailed above the dozen cruisers and frigates numbering about a hundred against the thirty cruisers and carrier of the HDI.

As the Batarian ships reeled from the surprised blow the Condors fired up and quickly hit the hangars before fighters could be launched against them. The battle raged but the Batarians didn't realize that the battle was but a diversion as three troop landers descended five minutes after the battle started.

Down on the surface Batarians and slaves alike looked up as the ships stopped and opened their cargo doors. A swarm of small objects fell towards the city and sudden explosions ripped through the city as anti-air and armories exploded causing panic to ripple through the civilians. The small objects falling turned out to be Human Rocket Angels flew above the crowds as they launched swarm missiles and lashed at troopers with their electro-whips. As they kept the Troops from gaining cohesion the landers touched down allowing Predators and Scavenger Buggies to roll towards the city as APCs with Vikings and infantry followed.

On the bridge of the last lander a warning beacon lit up and a beeping was heard. "What is it, Ensign Jacobs?"

Jacobs blanched, "Nuclear launch detected, Sir! Impact in three seconds!" An explosion rocked the lander sending it to the unforgiving ground beneath them.

BOOOM! The explosion caused by the crashed lander caused the troops around them some damage.

"Head to the city before they can launch another nuke!" Shepard roared over the chaos of the attack as his squad entered an APC. Dozens of Guardian APCs and Scavengers headed through the city streets as the Predators hunted around for the nuclear silo. The Vikings started to fight room by room through the building blocks.

A team of Vikings entered the back of the local Enforcers building to heavy fire from the Enforcer's shotguns. The fire quickly brought the Vikings shields down but their armor was more then a match for the tiny shards hitting their armor. Prowlers launched themselves at the Enforcers tearing through armor to the vulnerable throats and slashing at the body.

A marine stood and fired a burst into a Batarian soldier who had tried to reinforce the Enforcers, then he received a blast from a shotgun tearing into him. One Viking, Captain Mike Fredrickson, grabbed him and pulled him back to get him medical attention. "MEDIC!" Quickly three medics ran over and started to peel off the armor.

One look at the pus-filled skin beneath and they blanched and one swore, "Fuck! Their using Toxic Rounds. The things carry dozens of poisonous substances that will burn through them in minutes. You need to keep your armor from breeching."

Mike nodded and tapped into the Battle-Network and gave a broadband warning. "All HDI forces. Beware Batarians are using lethal Toxic Rounds. I repeat, Batarians are using Toxic Rounds."

Returning to his team he grabbed an Inferno grenade from a dead Enforcers and threw it straight into the group of soldiers rushing in. The blaze allowed the Vikings to move up and fire on the crowd of soldiers in the courtyard in front of the building. The soldiers quickly fell except for a few who managed to get into cover thick enough to hold against the rail cannons the Vikings had brought into play.

Deeper into the city Shepard and Axel were heading to the first Slave Center in an APC. The fighting was lighter deeper in as the Rocket Angels kept the Batarians busy away from their paths. Boom! A missile launcher hit the side before the Heavy Rail Gun blazed destroying the entire floor of the trooper who fired the missile. "Shit! Alright everybody out."

Shepard stood. "I thought the market was deeper in?"

The driver nodded. "Your two blocks from it but the bastards blocked the road with destroyed cars. There is no way around the blockade."

The ramp lowered and the squad fell out into cover as the APC kept watch. "Alright guys this our stop. We will continue through the buildings and get to the market."

Just then a voice came over the Battle-Net. "All HDI forces. Beware Batarians are using Toxic Rounds. I repeat, Batarians are using Toxic Rounds."

Shepard grimaced and looked at the team. "Alright guys keep your shields up and don't take risks. Mike and Hunter, I want five of you to cover the left side of the street while Axel and I cover the right."

The team slowly leap frogged down the street while firefights erupted in the city near them. The Batarians were using anything they could to slow the HDI collapsed buildingsand bridges demoed, used civilians as shields and Varren ran rampant.

Shepard saw a Batarian Brawler enter the street twenty feet ahead of them. Wearing blade armor and carrying a Disciple shotgun he looked around warily and headed their way. Shepard and Axel ducked into an alley and waited quietly for him to pass the corner next to them.

The moment the Brawler passed them Shepard tackled him with his tac-knife in his hand trying to put it into his neck where the armor was thin allowing the head to move. The Brawler tried to use a biotic lash to get him off as Axel slammed his assault rifle into his face allowing Shepard to cut his throat open.

The team kept moving and quickly met up near the market and Shepard looked out into the courtyard. Standing around were twenty or so troopers and some specialized classes with two Tanks standing guard near three large cages.

"Alright guys check your fire and don't shoot the slaves. Now get into position while I call in a strike."

As the team moved slowly to avoid the guards Shepard toggled the Battle-Net. "This is Sergeant John Shepard requesting an air strike. Anybody open, over."

A crackle of static comes up but clears allowing Shepard to hear, "Hey Shepard, This is Bravo Leader Reach-Three-Niner, I hear you and on the move towards you. T-minus 20 seconds, Over."

"Roger that Bravo Leader, beware cages full of civilian targets near the AO."

The Firehawk flew over dropping two air to ground missiles hitting both tanks and sending the guards into disarray allowing Shepard's men to fire at the guards while Hunter fired his under slung grenade launcher into a group of four guards using an HE shell sending them flying. Shepard turned to see a guard backing away but ended up running into the cage behind him where the slaves grabbed him pulling him against the bars holding him in place. Walking over Shepard grabbed his arm and hacked the Omni-tool gaining the key to the cells.

A Turian snapped the guards neck as Shepard opened the cell doors after he sent a copy to his teammates. standing in front of the doors Shepard spoke loudly to ensure the people heard him. "Everyone please remain calm. APCs and transport craft are on their way to get you guys out so we need to hold this position until help arrives. We have some medical supplies but not enough for everyone. The worst cases first, the rest of will have to wait until we get you to medical professionals."

People moved out of the cages slowly while Mike took care of the worst with the limited medical supplies they had. Axel stepped up next to Shepard. "I got ahold of Command but it will be a bit and the bad news is that a group of Batarians are headed our way. A squad of Zone Raiders will be here but not until after the four eyes."

Shepard winced, "Okay get defenses ready, set the mines block avenues of approach and get anyone with combat experience a weapon."

* * *

**Well looks like Shepards day is taking a turn for the worse. Six men and a bunch of wounded slaves against several Batarians. I wonder how the Council is doing getting back their colony. Find out next time on The Great War: Peace through War. Please Read and Review.**


	6. Sorry

**Hey everybody. Before you get mad at me I just want to say sorry about the lack of chapters. My family is going on a cruise next week and I won't be able to write during that period. Also after the cruise I am going to have to take a year long Haitus as I am working on a tournament in computer coding so I wont be able to spare the time. So I am putting my story ideas up for adoption and will try to pick them back up.**


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